For the second time in six months England were crushed by the World Cup. After the humiliation of a 4-1 defeat to Germany in South Africa came another resounding rejection for the mother country.

Shuttle diplomacy of David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham yesterday only succeeded in exposing the English bid as out of touch with the brutal realities of Fifa's politics; Vladimir Putin scored a victory over his British counterpart without even being in Zurich for the ballot. Instead, Russia's prime minister swept in last night recounting tales of the bombardment of Leningrad in the second world war and how football had helped Russians endure "tragic" deprivation. He told the Fifa executive committee, after they had awarded England only two votes out of a possible 22: "We're honoured by your decision. From the bottom of my heart, thank you."

So much for the English late charm offensive. Fifa treated their bid with contempt. From No 10 downward the leaders of England's bid mis-read the signals and frittered £15m on a campaign that failed to leave a dent in Russia's quest to use football to force through infrastructure change. Putin's greater mission in the hours before the vote had been to deny on CNN's Larry King Live and in other media outlets that Russia was a "mafia state" as alleged via WikiLeaks. From out of this morass, he was able to pull a PR coup that sums up Fifa's manic commercialism.

Russia won 13 of the 22 votes in round two to achieve an absolute majority, while Qatar beat the US 14-8 in the fourth round of polling for 2022.

In the pain of defeat, Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, doubted whether England would ever stage another global gathering. "It almost feels they've got us on standby for when someone suddenly can't host it. But on that basis we might never get it."

The sun-buttered summer of 1966, when Bobby Moore raised the former Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley, recedes to vanishing point. With a better bid than in 2006, England regressed in the affections of Fifa members. Five votes last time became two in this ballot's opening round. One came from Geoff Thompson, England's representative at the world governing body, known fondly as "Uncle Albert" for his resemblance to the Only Fools and Horses character.

So the vision of World Cup matches at Plymouth, Bristol and Milton Keynes attracted only one neutral, with 20 votes blanking out Cameron and Beckham.

As the throng shuffled into a conference hall in Zurich to hear Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, declare, "We go to new lands," Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker, two England legends, wore expressions as grim as any they came off the field with after penalty shoot-out defeats. In those instants of crushing rejection we saw the romanticism of the English candidacy collide with Fifa's urge to open goldmines in post-Soviet republics and in the Gulf oil states.

"Never has the World Cup been in Russia and eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Arabic world have been waiting for a long time, so I'm a happy president when we talk about the development of football," said Blatter.

Also at work was antipathy to the English game, with its globally dominant Premier League, lavish bid proposals, and inquisitive media – the latter having alleged vote-selling by two Fifa executive committee members (Sunday Times) and the sharing out of $100m in kick-backs (the BBC's Panorama). Asked whether fear of journalistic scrutiny played a part, Scudamore said: "It hasn't helped."

"In football we also learn to lose," Blatter said, piously. England are doing plenty of that this year. A World Cup in 2018 might have redressed the imbalance between Premier League power and the international game.Instead Fifa's talent for political chicanery has caused England to appear naive. As Russia took the prize, one of the first to his feet was Roman Abramovich, Chelsea's owner, a close ally of Putin. "Thank you for believing in change," said Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, emir of Qatar.

Shearer said: If we couldn't get this World Cup then will we [ever] get one? I haven't seen one in England in my lifetime. The last one was 1966, and I was dearly hoping for this one. It's like coming off the football pitch when you say 'I couldn't have done any more'; we couldn't have done any more."

Bitterness was suppressed. Only Boris Johnson, London mayor, spoke of the need for reform at Fifa.

Scudamore, though, urged English fans to seek refuge at Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. "The fundamentals of English football don't alter, do they? People will still be shouting on Saturday, people will still be playing," he said. "The game will continue on the trajectory it's on in England." In Bloemfontein and Zurich, though, the "fundamentals" were farcical and haunting.